To celebrate our good friends’ Jurgen Wegter and Ingvild Haga’s 50th birthdays together with Meg’s 50-year anniversary of arriving in Europe for the first time (in Southampton near where I lived at the time) as well as my 50 year anniversary of leaving school and a memorable holiday with 20-30 school friends in Newton Ferrers in Devon, we made a special gourmet dinner of green mac-cheese. It had masses of veg mixed in – the year’s first broad beans and swiss chard, chicory, common sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), Allium senescens leaves, shallots and garlic from last year, rehydrated winter chantarelles, golpar – ground seed of hogweed – Heracleum spp., together with ramsons salt, chili, sun dried tomatoes and mustard, all in a wholegrain spelt white sauce with wholegrain spelt pasta; it was topped with alpine bistort bulbils). Not to be left out, the Extreme Salad Man contributed one of his Meditteranean diet inspired multispecies salads commemorating it is now almost 20 years since he put together a salad from home grown ingredients in Malvik comprising 537 ingredients. something the world hasn’t seen before or since (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=18997). The record was set on 24th August 2003. This time there were a mere 106 ingredients….sad to see, but he must be losing it…. Thanks to Jurgen for the salad pictures:
The Extreme Salad Man photographs his latest creation
Many thanks to all who sent birthday wishes as I transitioned to become a bonafide pensioner
As usual, my celebration dinner was a green macaroni cheese (https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=macaroni), this year an Around the World in 80 Mac-Cheese with 80 different perennial greens harvested from the garden, some for the first time!
A wonderful birthday dinner yesterday! As is the tradition since I left home, my birthday dinner has been Macaroni Cheese with rhubarb crumble for dessert. Mac Cheese was the first veggie dish I ate back in the 60s – Mum took us to Edwin Jones in Southampton (the superstore of the time) where they served it in the restaurant. We loved it and it became a traditions for Mum to make this every Tuesday! Nowadays, we use whole grain spelt macaroni with masses of greens…Hablitzia or Caucasian spinach ( stjernemelde) and dandelion (løvetann). On the top, we used dried alpine bistort (harerug) bulbils! This one time rhubarb crumble is the only time I eat sugar each year, something I’ve kept up now for the last 20 years. Dedicating this to my dear Mum…it’s after all her 65th birth day too!
I harvested Hablitzia from this pot in which I’d had a bay tree that died a few years back, Hablitzia self-sowed and has taken over using the bay to climb up!
Dandelion
Hablitzia and dandelion greens were wilted before adding to the macaroni cheese
The finished mac cheese with alpine bistort bulbils on top
Dinner presentation
…and this curious stick with 65 marks on it appeared in my postbox anonymously, postmarked Tøyen in Oslo….
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
